In June I participated to an event in which I helped with the “catering”. The event being in summer, on a week day with hundreds of ladies attending, I had to cook something easy, with the possibility to prepare in advance and it had to keep well.
Our family is wheat free (you can read more about it here), therefore I always use alternative flours to bake. I normally use a combination of low gluten flour (spelt, kamut..) and gluten free flour (rice, millet, oat…).
I also take care of cooking with seasonal ingredients. Summer is the time of lavender and herbs (two years ago, while travelling through England we have visited a Lavender Nursery and discovered many different varieties of lavender, including a white one!) and I love mixing sweet and savoury flavours. For this event I had already prepared tomato/basil cupcakes which is a rather classic combination and I was looking to come up with something a bit more fancy.
So I came up with a recipe of a savoury cake. Working with kamut and rice flour, hence a much lower gluten content, the volume will not double, but the dough will rise. Working with raised dough which was a first for me!
You will need:
- 2 1/4 cups of flour (a mix of kamut and rice flour at equal proportions)
- 1 cup yogurt
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon dried lavender (grinded)
- 2,5 teaspoons dried yeast
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Directions:
- Pre-heat the oven at 170 C (fan oven).
- Combine sugar, lavender, yeast, thyme baking soda and 1/4 cup of the flour.
- Put the butter and the water in a saucepan, warm it and add it to the previous mix. Beat it until smooth.
- Add the yogurt, eggs and 1/2 cup of the remaining flour. Beat it on high speed until smooth and elastic. Add the remaining of the flour and beat again.
- Let rise about an hour in a warm place. Bake it for about 20 min at 170 C.
You can sprinkle the cake with fresh lavender and fresh thyme branches for a lovely presentation and to enhance the wonderful summery smell.
It is ideal to serve for cocktail, enjoy!
Credits: Photos by Stéphanie Castelain.